ABOUT THIS ALBUM

Album Notes

BIOGRAPHY:

American classical composer John Mitchell was born in Hollywood, California on April 26,1941, first son of John Stewart Mitchell, pianist and cousin of Canadian novelist W.O. Mitchell, and Hungarian-born singer Teresa Hideg Mitchell. He studied music composition at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he became a protégé of Dr. John Vincent, then head of composition.

Since 1962 Mitchell has been a church music director, organist, and opera coach. His compositions include works for solo piano and organ, choral music, chamber music, art songs and operas. In 2000-2002 he wrote two piano sonatas, a song cycle based on T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets, a setting of Robert Browning's Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came for vocal quartet, a quartet for flute, viola, bassoon and piano, a dance suite for piano, a requiem mass, and song settings of poetry of Anne Sexton. Current projects include song settings of the poetry of Dylan Thomas, Persian poet Kabir (in translation), South American poets Jorge Luis Borges and Delmira Agustini (in the original Spanish), a string quartet, and an opera based on Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. Mitchell is a member of the American Guild of Organists, the American Music Center, and the Center for Promotion of Contemporary Composers. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Vicky , a dog named Chelsea, and five cats (Elizabeth, Adolf, Shelley, Isolde and Babalou).

FAN MAIL:

As I type this, I'm listening to the piano quartet and enjoying it enormously. What wonderful stuff!

Dear John
I took a chance and listened to your music on MP3.com. You are a great composer. I didn't know there were any of them out there any more. I wish you the best of luck with your great music.---David Bagno, composer, MP3.com, http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/62/david_bagno.html

To: Vicky
Honestly, I don't like very much classical music.
So, the truth is that I made some effort to listen to John's "Trio for...". Well, efforts were to start. After 30 seconds no more effort and after 2 minutes I stopped.... and started again the whole song to get the pleasure of listening.
Well, just to say it's a good surprise to me. The rank of this song let me think that it probably is a good surprise too for thousands of listeners.---Michel Camboulives (CAMBOU), composer (Europop), MP3.com, http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/156/cambou.html

Mr. Mitchell's work (Piano Quartet, Op.27) is hands down one of the best original compositions you'll find online anywhere: You won't find too much music on the net that matches the quality of this work, both in terms of compositional skill and performance wise. If you're a fan of classical or romantic music, and getting tired of listening to the same composers over and over then I suggest you take a look at Mr. Mitchell's site. You won't find too much "new music" written in this kind of style, at least not on recordings, and definitely not in the world of the internet.

Upon listening to John Mitchell's Piano Quartet Op 27 (1), I was struck by the traditional classical approach. Much of what I hear in modern Classical music is somewhat unaccessable to average listeners due to the composer's use of unfamiliar meters, harmonies, and rhythms. This piece for piano, violin, viola, and cello is a well structured and very engaging piece. The piece begins with a rather majestic introduction followed by brief modulation to a very energetic sixteenth note pattern played by the piano with the strings stating the theme. There are all the elements of a good classical piece here: discernable motifs, themes and variations. The composer does an excellent job of integrating the instruments into a cohesive whole. I believe anyone who has an ear for classical stylings will truely enjoy this piece.

composition: great, a realy inspired composer, in best traditions but never old fashioned

sheremetyev ensemble: wonderful artists, high level of performence

cd: the ensemble understands wonderfully the intention of the composer - I hope to hear more of both (and don't understand he doesn't sell all his cds on cdbaby but you have to pick them together in several shops online)

Session Expiration Warning

Session Expiration

We need to talk.

The web browser you're using to surf the web is so old it’s embarrassing. But hey, we hope you consider us a friend, the kind of friend you can count on to tell you when there's spinach stuck between your teeth. So here it goes: every time you surf the web with that antiquated web browser it’s like you have spinach in your teeth. Every time you get online, spinach!

Look, we don't want you to be the butt of any more jokes when the sites you visit don't load or function properly. So please - for your own sake - click on one of the links for your preferred browser below, and get that spinach out of your teeth for good.